Kim Kataguiri: I think Brazil has to increasingly seek commercial partners and that it's a stupid move by the American government to implement these successive tariffs, because that pushes us away from the United States, it reduces the United States' share in the Brazilian economy at a moment when tightening commercial relations with Brazil would also strengthen a geopolitical position for the United States.
Kim Kataguiri: The more they impose tariffs against us, the more they push us toward China, the more they push us toward other trading partners, to Southeast Asia, to the European Union, and so on.
I think this is a short-term strategy by the American government to try to bring back the industry they lost, mainly to China over recent years, but I don't think, generally speaking, it will be successful.
Kim Kataguiri: Of course... Trump's tariff barrage became a political platform in Brazil, with Bolsonaro supporters shifting the blame onto Lula, who in fact conducts an incompetent and lazy negotiation. It suits Lula to have a tariff barrage against Brazil, because his government is doing poorly, his administration is poorly rated, and there's nothing better for a poorly rated government than an external enemy to divert attention.
Kim Kataguiri: On the other side, you have... from Flávio Bolsonaro, that claim that the tariffs wouldn't be against the companies, they'd be against Lula.